Iwatobi Ghoul
by OdoroshiRider
Summary: An AU where some of the beloved characters from Free! are actually ghouls and general chaos ensues. No Tokyo Ghoul characters are included and the story takes place within Iwatobi with the cast of Free!. Rated M for gore and violence. Will be multiple chapters.
1. Chapter 1

It was a stormy day at Samezuka academy. Rain came down in thick sheets, obscuring anything aside from, perhaps, one's hand in front of their face.

A familiar face weighed on every student's mind. The familiar smile belonging to that familiar face was scrawled across every obituary in Iwatobi and pushed itself to the forefront of importance. It was the most cliche type of tragedy-accented by the cliche and frankly depressing scenery. A bright smile had been snatched so easily away from the town, from the Samezuka campus. The shining life of a student, so filled with promise, with potential, was snuffed out without so much as a warning.

"_Aiichiro Nitori, a Samezuka second-year student was found dead just outside of the school grounds yesterday", _the obituary read with little feeling, "_Police assume his death to be as a result of an animal attack based upon the condition of the body and are presently investigating."_

Rin Matsuoka let out a cynical snort and quickly balled up the school newspaper in his hands. He didn't need to read the rest of the article-it'd only depress and/or infuriate him. Inevitably it went something like "_blah, blah, oh what a tragedy, blah, blah, what a shame to see such a bright student die, blah, blah, blah."_ Student obituaries always went something like that. They tried so hard to be original, to make the student seem like they were really and truly outstanding somehow, but the same chiche lines over and over and over again read in Rin's mind like a drone. It didn't sum up the importance of Aiichiro Nitori properly, didn't make him stand out against the faces of the other dead students.

This was the third death by "animal attack" within the month, though the first that Rin knew the truth behind. Animal, indeed. The death really felt so primal, so animalistic.

* * *

The night of Ai's death was like any other night. Well, for him at least.

The night was absolutely _not _normal for Rin Matsuoka. The night felt much like a slow and rocky descent into Hell. Hunger was like that-hellish, that is. It started in the pit of Rin's stomach and worked its way up, up through the rest of his body and spread like greedy flames throughout every limb, every nerve ending, until it felt like even the tips of his teeth were being consumed from the inside out. He hadn't been hungry like this in years; he hadn't felt the need to starve until coming back to Iwatobi. The instinct to chase his dream of swimming was, at the time, far more primal and far more prevalent than the desire to eat, ironically. He hadn't noticed it getting so bad until he felt as if his body may devour itself.

Ai's first mistake was not realizing something was off.

He noticed that something was wrong with Rin when he returned to their dorm and found Rin curled on the floor, as the beloved senpai had not been able to reach his bed and instead settled for the ground. Ai rushed to Rin's side, panic making him break out into a cold sweat.

Ai's second mistake was his smell.

His sweat was like a glaze, which wouldn't have been enough to create a savory enough smell in itself. However, he had tripped and scraped his hands just before making his way to the dorms, and the fresh scent of blood permeated the air around him.

Rin's nostrils instantly flared and caught wind of the smell. His red haired head snapped up in an instant. He said no words but instead made a pained, guttural sound like a cornered animal.. Strands of red hair fell thickly in his face, but couldn't obscure the fact that his eyes had turned pitch black and that red cracks spiderwebbed out from his waterline down his cheeks.

Ai's third mistake was not running.

The boy instead backed up into a corner of their dorm, shrieking out the name of his roommate-"_Rin, Rin, what happened!?"-_and begging him to return to his senses, as if the sound of his name would fill Rin's stomach. But it didn't. There was no returning a ghoul to their senses once hunger had overtaken every sense. Rin lunged and buried his teeth into the soft flesh of Ai's shoulder. The sharp points easily wrested flesh from bone and delivered it into Rin's greedily awaiting stomach.

Ai continued to scream Rin's name, trying to shove him off, trying to return him to the Rin he knew, but he was shouting at an animal that, at present, couldn't feel a thing except the need to consume.

Rin next tore into Ai's jugular to silence him. The sound of Rin's name tapered into a scream that cut off as Ai fell as a dead weight and blood rushed into Rin's mouth.

There was a heartbeat of silence before Rin continued to eat. There were no more screams, no more begging, no more cries of his name-only the satisfying give of Ai's cooling skin under Rin's teeth. With each bite, chew, and swallow, everything blurred around Rin. Caution, boundaries, judgement-it was all thrown to the wind as he tore apart Aiichiro Nitori.

* * *

Rin awoke from his frenzy minutes-perhaps hours; he wasn't sure- later and finally beheld the extent of the damage. Ai's body-or, what was left of it-lie sprawled out just in front of the corner he had run to, still pooling blood about him. The remainder of Ai's blood and bits of other parts splattered against the wall and ran down in sluggish rivulets.

The body stared with eyes wide open at the ceiling as if still branded with the image of the beast that had been his friend tearing his life away chunk by chunk.

Rin looked down at his hands. Every inch was coated with a layer of the sickly crimson pigment he had created to paint the ghastly scene, and even though Rin's hands shook enough to scatter the blood around him, it showed no sign of relenting in its complete dye of his fingers.

A part of him felt like crying, felt like wrapping his bloodied arms about himself and letting out his frustration in tears and sobs. Another more rational part of him realized that there was a large mess before him that needed cleaning up, else his secret would leak like the fluid from Ai's corpse. He scrambled for his phone, which lie in its place in the center of his bed, and dialed a familiar number with shaky fingers.

It took a moment for her to pick up. "Onii-chan? What's the deal, calling me this late?" Gou sounded as girlishly carefree as always.

"Gou….I-I need you to get over here as fast as you can, alright?" Rin wheezed into the phone, having to hold it in both hands to keep it from shaking. "I fucked up, I fucked up, Gou." When he spoke, the blood dribbling off his chin was flung in every direction.

Instantly, Gou's voice dropped in volume and took on a serious tone. "Rin, what happened!? Calm down and tell me."

Rin nodded and swallowed hard. "I-I killed Ai. I haven't eaten in months and he scraped his hands a-and I just-"

Gou cut him off. "Stay _right there_ and don't move until I get there. Lock your door and pretend you're sleeping if anybody knocks." And the line went dead.

Rin crumpled down into his bed and wrapped his arms about himself, trying to control his violent trembling.

* * *

Gou arrived in record time, sticking her slender fingers under the door instead of knocking as to not make a sound. Rin let her in, apologizing to Ai's still body as he stepped over it. Gou paused to take in the scene. "God, Rin, why did you have to let yourself go so long without eating?" She shook her head and punched Rin roughly in the arm. "And he's so scrawny. Out of all the muscles at Samezuka, you had to go for the little fish?" She clicked her tongue in distaste, but nonetheless swiped her finger over Ai's bloody skin and stuck it in her mouth. "Mm, not bad, though."

"Will you quit that!?" Rin swatted at her hand. "We have to deal with this or else everybody in Japan will know about us!"

Gou made a face. "I wasn't the one who killed him, but if you insist." She shrugged and wiped her finger off on her skirt. "He's too little for me, anyway. Now that you've eaten, though, can you use your kagune to get down to the ground and off of school grounds?" Rin nodded in response. "Good. Do that and carry the body far enough away. And make sure to make it look like the initial attack happened wherever you dump it, mmkay? I'll clean up here."

Rin nodded, running a hand through his hair and leaving a trail of blood in the matching colored strands. Gingerly, he lifted Ai's lifeless body into his arms and slung it over his shoulder, gathering up the parts that were no longer attached in his free hand.

"Be careful not to let anybody see you, or else _they're_ going to be _my _next meal." Gou called to Rin as he slid out the open window and sprinted off in the direction leading off of school grounds.

Rin decided to dump Ai's body at the edge of a small forest just off of school grounds. To make the scene believable, though, he came to conclusion that he'd have to reenact the attack and take off even more of the little flesh that clung to Ai's body. Rin apologized to what used to be his roommate, his companion, and sank his teeth again into him.

Ai's fourth mistake was being _delicious._


	2. Chapter 2

Ai's death resonated through the rainy days that followed it. The entirety of the Samezuka campus seemed to be in mourning, as practice hadn't been held for a number of days as some sort of tribute to their fallen teammate, allowing the heavy news to settle like a weight on every student there.

It was like fate was forcing Rin to wallow in what he he had done-calling out to him "_Are you satisfied now, ghoul?" _with a mocking tongue. All he could do was stare in the corner of the dorm in which Ai had met his gruesome end, wondering how Gou could so easily remove all traces of anything from the wall and carpet.

Gou was very good at putting on a facade that make it seem as if she actually cared, shedding her crocodile tears and putting on her plastic sobbing expression. Rin could only internalize the issue and let it simmer in his chest and stomach, where the last traces of Ai were being broken down to fuel him. He didn't cry; he couldn't bring himself to. He just...couldn't forget that, through the panic and the loathing, he actually _enjoyed _eating Ai, as per the true nature of ghouls.

'_God,' _he thought with a trace of horror, '_I'm turning into Gou.' _

Rin shook his head and got to his feet, storming out of the room before the image of what happened made him hungry again. He had to get _out _of Samezuka before the stagnant air drove him up the walls.

Before he knew it, he was running, running off campus, running from the vengeful spirit of Aiichiro Nitori. Rin knew he was being irrational, knew he was just ignoring the fact that, as a ghoul, he had to eat humans, and that was unavoidable. It shouldn't matter if he knew the human or not. They were all the same-all cattle to be eaten by ghouls.

Rin slowed his running and doubled over, gritting his teeth. "It shouldn't matter if I killed him, dammit! I have to eat!"

"...Eat what?"

Rin's head snapped up suddenly. That voice belonged to someone he knew, someone who should definitely not be here.

"...H-Haru?"

* * *

Haruka Nanase stood in front of where Rin was hunched over, his posture as casual as ever with hands shoved in his pockets and shoulders sagging comfortably. He seemed unfazed by the rain, even seemed more comfortable in it. "You didn't answer my question." His voice, too, was casual-far too casual, really, like they were discussing the weather.

"Haru….I….I didn't…" Rin shook his head.

"You killed Nitori, didn't you?" Haruka blinked and inclined his head to one side.

"What makes you….say that?" Rin let out a nervous, staccato laugh.

"You just said it." Haruka's eyebrows raised in question.

Rin's heartbeat picked up its pace. The steady _thud-thud-thud _echoed in his ears and shook out anything he wanted to say. Haruka, seeming not to notice, continued. "It's kind of obvious that it was you, Rin. Nobody else could have left teeth marks like an animal's." He shrugged lightly, as if indicating this was common knowledge.

Rin laughed shakily. "Come on, Haru, that's ridiculous. Me? Eat Ai? How would that even be possible?"

Haruka blinked slowly. "It's completely possible if you're a ghoul."

The word _ghoul _left Haruka's lips so easily it astounded Rin to the point in which he had to take a step backward. His mind reeled frantically, trying to grab at an explanation, an excuse, _anything. _How could Haruka possibly know what ghouls were…? Their existence was practically unheard of in Iwatobi; it was Tokyo that was infamous for its ghoul population. Rin opened his mouth to speak but only succeeded in making a series of distressed noises.

Haruka smirked faintly. "You should share next time. I don't get to eat very often."

"...Huh?"

"I said you should share next ti-"

"Wait, wait, I heard you, but what the hell do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said."

Rin blinked dumbly before it clicked. "Haru…you're a…?" He shook his head in disbelief, though his heartbeat was slowly beginning to calm.

"I'm a ghoul, yeah. I didn't suspect you were one, too, until I heard of Nitori and all the other attacks. I knew Nitori had to be because of you." Haruka shrugged again. "You had to be starving yourself for a while if you snapped on him like that. You shouldn't do that." He gestured with his head for Rin to follow and started walking off in the other direction.

Rin trotted to keep up with Haruka, his head still reeling from how casually his old friend had shared the news that they were both essentially man-eating monsters. "So this whole time...you've been a ghoul." He muttered more for himself than for Haruka. "Hahah...I always thought you'd hate me if I told you, but here we are."

"Yeah, likewise." Haruka laughed lightly. "So does that mean Gou is…?"

"A ghoul too? Yeah." Rin rubbed the back of his neck. "She's better at hiding it. And acting the part." As far a ghouls went, Gou was a little bit terrifying. She was completely unfazed by the idea of killing anyone and everyone, as ghouls should be, but likewise took some sort of sadistic _pleasure _in taking people out. Rin was glad that Haruka was a ghoul for no other reason than it meant Gou would leave him and his muscles alone. "She has a really narrow preference in food, though."

"...Muscular guys, I'm guessing?"

"Bingo."

Haruka's eyes suddenly darkened with seriousness. "If she goes after Makoto, _I'll _eat _her._"

Rin blinked. "So you're the only ghoul on your swim team?" He asked, and Haruka replied with a simple nod. "And Makoto…?"

"He doesn't know anything." Haruka's expression didn't falter. "And he won't know anything as long as we're careful."

Rin swallowed hard and nodded. Despite the rather sideways way of doing it, he could pick up on Haruka's subtle warning of: _Don't lose your head again. _Rin, frankly, had no intention of doing so, even if he had to tag along with his sister's frequent hunting trips to satisfy himself in a proper way. The incident with Ai was a close enough call.

"Well," Haruka turned over his shoulder to look directly at Rin, "the only reason I came here was to check on you. I should go. Call me if you want to go hunting or swim in a relay or something." He offered a small smile and a hand to shake, and then was off walking in the other direction.

Rin laughed a bit. "Yeah. I'll be sure to take you up on that." He waved and turned back towards Samezuka, feeling a bit lighter than he had before.

* * *

The rain finally relented the next day, which was both a good and a bad thing for Haruka Nanase. Good because it meant that the swim team could hold practice, though bad because he couldn't feel the water at any given time of the day.

The morning began with his usual routine: bathing until his entire body pruned up, and then contemplating if that was a sign to get out of the bath until he heard Makoto knock at the door. Without fail, the taller boy would come in, laugh about the fact that Haruka was still bathing, and then help him out of the water. Haruka would then emerge from the bath, throw on an apron, and make himself "breakfast" while Makoto protested faintly in the background.

Of course, he always had to end up vomiting up the mackerel once he got to school, but the feigned obsession with the particular fish gave him an excuse to refuse food when it was offered to him. Plus, fish did well to hide the smell of blood on one's breath. This particular morning, though, there was one variable that seemed slightly off. When Makoto entered Haruka's bathroom on cue, he carried a silver briefcase in his right hand. Everything else about Makoto was as normal as ever, but the briefcase seemed to raise a tiny red flag in Haruka's head.

"What's the briefcase for?" Haruka inquired as he took Makoto's extended hand and pulled himself from the bathtub.

Makoto blinked as if just remembering he was carrying it, then chuckled lightly. "Huh? Just extra supplies. Nothing really important."

Haruka raised an inquisitive eyebrow but allowed the matter to drop for the time being. If it was Makoto's, then the briefcase should be of minimal concern, though something still didn't quite sit right. He dried off and threw his school uniform on without bothering to remove the swim trunks he always bathed in.

"You're not going to make breakfast?" Makoto wrinkled his brows in concern. "It's not good to starve yourself, Haru. It's alright if we're a little la-"

"It's fine." Haruka cut Makoto off before he started fretting like the friend crossed with mother that he was. "I had a big dinner last night. Besides, all of the attacks have sort of killed my appetite." Well, that much was a small fib. If anything, the prospect that Rin was another ghoul only made him hungrier, made him more eager to feed. He wasn't alone in this taboo hunger for flesh. However...there was no way he'd let Makoto get dragged down into the world of ghouls and their victims. Makoto was different-inedible in a different way than that of human food. A morsel too perfect to consume, too perfect to fall victim to the lowly maw of ghouls.

Makoto smiled sadly and looked down. "Yeah. It's….horrible what happened to Nitori. He was a really great guy." Something flickered in the depths of his green eyes but was gone in an instant.

Haruka stared for a moment before turning toward the door and starting toward it. "Let's get to school. We'll be a little bit early for once."

* * *

Swim practice came after a usual day's monotony-though Makoto had been acting strange all day as some sort of deviation from a usual routine. He seemed high-strung, seemed incredibly jumpy for reasons Haruka could only vaguely grasp at. It was obvious that Makoto's behavior had something to do with Nitori's death-everyone, even those not attending Samezuka, seemed affected in one way or another-but that was just about all that Haruka could pinpoint.

Makoto put on a smile for swim practice, but Haruka knew him well enough to know the smile was plastic-a facade put on as to not bring down the other members of the team. Haruka, however, couldn't quite bring himself to ask exactly what happened to put Makoto in his mood. Something in his gut told him he didn't want to know-or, rather, that it was in his best interest he try not to find out.

"Haru?" Makoto's voice snapped Haruka promptly from his reverie. Haruka hadn't realized that he'd been staring for a long while at Makoto's face, trying to dissect his plastic smile. Makoto let out a small chuckle. "You're spacier than usual today. You should've eaten more."

Nagisa, who had been hovered beside Haruka, leaned over with his signature doe eyes wide and his mouth in a tiny "o". "Haru-chan! That's not good for you! Don't we have a big relay coming up?" He lightly smacked Haruka on the arm, though his expression quickly changed and his hand fell limp. "Or...we _did, _I guess." He suddenly sniffled, wiping at his eyes. "Kind of goes without saying that Rin's team won't be racing us any time soon, huh?"

Makoto gave a sad little smile and patted Nagisa gently on the shoulder. "Yeah. But, come on, Nitori wouldn't want you to give up just because you won't be racing him."

Nagisa sniffled again and nodded. "Mmhm."

Seemingly eager for a change in subject, Gou spoke up from her place in the shade. "Haruka! If you're hungry, I brought some extra protein bars that should get you through practice." When Haruka opened his mouth to refuse, Gou cut him off before he could make any noise. "Come on, I _insist._" She trotted up to him, grabbed a hold of his wrist, and pulled him toward the team's locker room despite Haruka's faint protesting.

"Gou, I _really _don't need any-" Haruka began once the door had closed behind them, but Gou silenced him with a wave of her hand.

"I know. Trust me. There's something else I gotta talk about with you." She gave a sly smile and a wink. "Besides, I know you can't eat that horse shit."

Haruka stared with his mouth open and his words stuck in his throat for a good moment or two, not sure how to process Gou's words and change in demeanor. "What do you mean by that?" was all he was able to force out. He knew that Gou and Rin were both ghouls, but had she figured out his real nature? Who else knew? Rhetorical questions spiraled in Haruka's head until Gou spoke up again.

"You don't have to play dumb. Your secret's safe with me." Gou laughed a high, girlish laugh and winked again, though this time her open eye flashed to black and back quickly. "Onii-chan told me that you're like us. And that you know he killed Nitori."

Haruka frowned and let out a soft "oh". He figured that Rin would divulge his secret to Gou, though he hadn't quite expected it to be so soon. He didn't quite mind her knowing-she seemed to be trustworthy enough, he figured-but he almost wished he didn't get to see her...other side. As Rin described the ghoul part of his sister, he had seemed almost terrified. Haruka wasn't eager to likewise be terrified by this small girl.

"But! I'm here to pass on an important little tidbit of information." Her expression suddenly darkened with seriousness. "Makoto is trying to kill you."

"...What?" Haruka blinked, squinting at her in disbelief. If Makoto was out for his blood, he could have done done the deed a thousand times over by this point-he had the chance every day in the morning, during their commute to school, or during the frequent jogs they took together. They were alone together quite often. "If you're just here to mess with me, I'm going back to practice."

Gou slid in between Haruka and the doorway, folding her arms. "Ok, ok, maybe not trying to kill just you, but he's after us. As in, us _ghouls_. I know for a fact he'll kill you if he ever finds out you're a ghoul, and don't give me your shitty stories about the 'power of friendship'. Humans hate ghouls-that's a fact."

Haruka rolled his eyes and let out a soft sigh spill out of his lungs. "Makoto wouldn't kill me. I don't need to explain why." Quite suddenly, a bright flash of pain exploded from his cheek and he stumbled backwards.

Gou put the hand she had slapped him with on her hip, adapting a look of annoyance. "_God _you're thick. Do I have to spell it out for you slowly? Here. B-R-I-E-F-C-A-S-E. Do you know know what the briefcase means?"

"He said it was extra school supplies." Haruka responded whilst massaging his sore cheek, and Gou slapped him hard on the other cheek.

"I am actually losing brain cells trying to explain this to you." She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "You ever heard of Doves? Ghoul Investigators? The guys whose job it is to find and kill ghouls? That briefcase proves that he's with them. He must have been given it after all of the attacks here in Iwatobi. I never expected someone so close to be with them."

Haruka stared again, opening and closing his mouth as he thought of something, went to say it, but thought better of it. His expression, too, went suddenly dark. "Then he's not going to find out I'm a ghoul. Simple. You won't tell him. I won't tell him. Rin won't tell him. I'll make sure of it."

Gou laughed again, though the high girlishness was gone and replaced with something far more malevolent. "Cute of you, making threats like that. Don't act like you could take me down if I did anything to jeopardize your relationship with the Dove." She gave Haruka's chest a patronizing pat. "I'm just warning you to watch your ass, mmkay? You may not want to kill him, but I'm willing to. I'd kill him in a heartbeat. I'd kill him if he so much as looks at me funny." Gou tossed her ponytail over her shoulder and went for the exit.

Haruka lingered for a few moments more, feeling his fists clench until his knuckles turned bone-white and his hands shook. He wouldn't let Gou kill Makoto. There was no way. He didn't care how scared Rin was of her; he'd rend her limb from limb regardless of if Makoto was a Dove or not. He took a deep breath and let his hands go limp at his sides and tries his best to put his normal impassive expression back on before walking out to practice.

The others waited for him by the side of the pool, including the seemingly newly arrived Rei. In his left hand he carried a silver briefcase, waving at Haruka with his other.


	3. Chapter 3

At first, all Haruka could do was stare. His eyes lingered on the matching silver briefcases. They seemed so normal-far too normal to contain what he understood to be anti-ghoul weapons. They were unbearably simple, unbearably unremarkable, but at the same time they seemed to be the metaphorical elephant in the room; the way that they rested in the palms of his teammates was unnatural. Despite the summer sun bearing relentlessly down upon them, the glinting silver seemed cold, seemed malicious.

In a way, they _tainted _everything.

The briefcases didn't belong in this picture. The briefcases chilled the air about them, chilled Makoto's usual smile into something that seemed plastic. The briefcases robbed the atmosphere of its usual lightheartedness. It was if he put the blame on the lifeless silver rather than the ones who had been carrying it all day.

It wasn't right. The tension that they had created wasn't right. It was that cold silver responsible for tainting their swim practice.

When Haruka finally tore his gaze from the matching briefcases, he focused wholly on Makoto (who, luckily, was engaged in a side-conversation with Rei and hadn't noticed Haruka's unblinking stare). There was a stiffness to him-something forced and fabricated about his smiling expression, and when he laughed the sound was emptier than Haruka remembered it to be. Rei mirrored the stiffness, though his discomfort was far more obvious. Every other movement, he stopped to push his glasses up, raising his shoulders higher than they needed to be and moving with quick, jerky motions.

Haruka blew out a snort through his nose unconsciously and felt his impassive lips begin to twitch downward.

"Haru-chan?"

It took Nagisa's voice and a sharp poke to his ribs to rouse Haruka from his reverie. Haruka jumped, blinking rapidly a few times and turning his attention to the shorter boy. Nagisa studied his face intently, squinting, tilting his head. "Are you okay Haru-chan?" There was a genuine concern in his expression accented by his puffy eyes and dampened cheeks.

Haruka squeezed his lips tightly together. "Mmhm. That protein bar that Gou gave me just wasn't all that good." Nagisa didn't belong in the world of ghouls and ghoul investigators. Something about him seemed as if it was made of glass-so pure and untainted by the bloodstained nature of the world. Those doe eyes didn't deserve to witness the horror of the truth. Haruka resolved mentally to try his best to keep his hands over Nagisa's eyes in regards to anything steeped in the world of ghouls.

"It's your fault for not eating, dummy." Gou chimed in from a few feet behind them with all malice suddenly gone from her demeanor. Haruka was almost caught off guard how immaculate she seemed, like the ghoul side of her had been a completely different person. She approached from behind, placing a hand upon Haruka's shoulder. Slender fingers dug into his skin as a subtle but very clear reminder of that "other" Gou from a few moments ago. "You should thank me for helping you out instead of complaining."

Haruka had a feeling that she was not referring to the protein bar that he hadn't received. He slid her a sideways look, though Gou still maintained her girlishly carefree expression. Rin had been right; Gou was certainly a good actress.

Nonetheless, Haruka could feel a subtle "told you so" attitude radiating from her, as if she thought that the presence of a second briefcase proved her previous point. Haruka frowned again. He didn't believe her-_wouldn't _believe her for a long time yet. He wasn't going to make Makoto his enemy. He couldn't, not until whatever weapon that was in that briefcase was pointed at his face.

Haruka elected to ignore Gou and made his way over to where Makoto and Rei stood. He noted that their conversation was a strained sort of casual-like they were trying too hard to discuss trivial matters in lieu of whatever was obviously bothering the both of them. Haruka thought it safe to assume they were worried about the same thing. He, however, was not keen on bringing it up. Perhaps if he ignored the problem, it'd work itself out. A lot of problems worked out that way; it was Haruka's favorite way of problem-solving.

Makoto's eyes seemed to relax a bit when he noticed Haruka standing nearby and Rei gave a quick, tense wave and smile. "...Are we going to start practice?" Haruka pretended the tense atmosphere away, pretended like Makoto's warmness and Rei's friendly awkwardness were still there and had not been sucked into their silver briefcases.

"Huh?" Makoto seemed to have forgotten that was why they were there. "Oh! Right. Haha, sorry Haru." He smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "I still need to change, don't I?" A tiny laugh escaped him, bearing some semblance to the laugh that Haruka knew well.

Still, it wasn't quite right.

"Aah, I guess I need to change, too." Rei shuffled after Makoto toward the locker rooms, though both were stopped suddenly in their tracks.

Nagisa held both of them by the wrists. "Wait, Mako-chan, Rei-chan." He looked up with wide eyes and puffed-out cheeks-a look of childish determination that the three of them had become accustomed to. "You two aren't going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong!"

Makoto and Rei exchanged a glance and replied in unison. "What do you mean?"

Nagisa cut them off with a wave of his slender hand. "Don't pretend like nothing's wrong! I can tell something is bothering you two and we're not starting practice until you say what it is!" He released them and stood in the locker room doorway with his arms folded-a tiny but inevitably impassable barrier.

"It's nothing," Rei began to say, though Makoto let out a resigned sigh.

"Alright. I didn't expect to keep this from you guys for too long." Makoto smiled and scratched at his cheek. "You can really read us like a book, Nagisa. Come sit over here and we'll explain."

"But Makoto-!" Rei began

"It's okay. They were bound to find out eventually."

Haruka kept to himself the fact that Makoto and Rei weren't exactly being discreet about it and followed Makoto over to a circular table off to the side of the pool.

Makoto sat down first, folding his hands atop the briefcase in his lap and staring down at his hands as if contemplating exactly how to explain what it meant. Haruka followed shortly after, then Nagisa, then Gou (who gave Haruka a hard stare before resuming her girlish facade), and finally Rei. The bespectacled boy looked conflicted for a good few heartbeats before he could bring himself to join them, and even then he sat with his legs bouncing anxiously.

There was a drawn out silence before Makoto spoke up. "Alright, well, I guess that I'll start that Rei and I are both working the same job." He rubbed the back of his neck and laughed sheepishly. "You guys know all the recent incidents...right? The animal attacks?"

"Like Ai-chan?" Nagisa inquired, and Makoto gave a small nod.

"Yeah. Like that. Those weren't animal attacks. There aren't any animals that could inflict that kind of damage in Iwatobi." Makoto tensely wrung his hands together, contemplating, before he finished his thought. "They were ghoul attacks, no doubt about it."

Haruka slid his eyes sideways and caught another one of Gou's glances. She wasn't happy, he could feel that anger bubbling up beneath her persona ready to burst out at any given moment. Haruka narrowed his eyes in response and gave a tiny, near undetectable shake of his head. He didn't _care _about the situation at hand, didn't _care _about Makoto's alliance. All he really cared about was his team and filling his stomach-he was simple in that way.

"Ghouls?" Nagisa seemed completely unaware of the silent exchange between Gou and Haruka and stared with doe-eyed fascination at Makoto. "Like….those things that eat people? I thought they only lived in big cities, like...like Tokyo."

Makoto smiled somewhat sadly and shook his head. "No. They're...everywhere, really. And now that we know they're in Iwatobi, Rei and I have to take them down to keep you guys safe." He lifted the briefcase from his lap and set it on the table. "Long story short, we're ghoul investigators. We're here to make sure incident's like Ai's death don't happen in Iwatobi. Not now, not ever."

Haruka's fist closed tightly under the table, dyeing his knuckles a bone-white. The fact that he could feel Gou giving him a sideways glance was only making him angrier. Makoto didn't _know _exactly what he was getting into, didn't _know _that he had unconsciously put himself on the opposing side.

Nagisa seemed as oblivious as ever. He almost looked..._enthralled _with the idea of his friends going out and killing ghouls. Haruka wished he understood exactly what that meant, how those silver briefcases slashed a rift between human and ghoul, between friend and friend. "So you fight ghouls? That's so cool, Mako-chan! And Rei-chan, why didn't you tell me earlier that you were a ghoul investigator? I thought you could tell me anything!"

Rei flushed in embarrassment and started down at his briefcase. "W-well-"

But Nagisa cut him off again. "You should make it up to me by telling me about the ghouls that are in Iwatobi. You guys give them, like, code names, right? Tell me, tell me!" He was leaning forward, hands perched at the edge of the table, advancing on a flustered Rei. "Tell meeee!"

Rei exchanged a look with Makoto, who shrugged as if to say "_Why not? Go ahead."_ He quickly pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "Ah, right, well, I'm assigned to the ghoul that the higher-ups are calling the "Siren". Supposedly, they only target fishermen and people far out in the ocean. If I had to make an educated guess as to why, it's probably because bodies are far easier to dispose of out at sea. Only one of the bodies has washed up so far, but fishermen's accounts say that "Siren" could have taken at least thirty victims in the past couple of years. It's not surprising, after all, that a ghoul could swim well enough to target people at sea if they live in Iwatobi. We've been producing some of Japan's best swimmers, after all."

Nagisa stared with wide-eyed amazement and curiosity. "Wow," he whispered, "a ghoul that hunts at sea? That's really scary." Haruka doubted that Nagisa was really scared from his tone of voice. "Tell me more, tell me more!"

"The ghoul I'm assigned to is a real mystery." Makoto continued where Rei had left off. "They're calling him "Penguin", because nobody really knows anything about him other than his mask. A good number of ghoul investigators have seen him in person, but never long enough to get any real information about him. Some of the upper-tier guys are claiming that he's SS ranked, though, so he's apparently as strong as he is mysterious. At least a hundred bodies have been found all over Japan with his signature over the years."

"Penguin? I love penguins!" Nagisa's mind seemed to have skimmed over the "one-hundred bodies" part of Makoto's explanation, or at least deemed it less important than the ghoul's code name. "You have to take a picture and show me if you see him, okay?"

Makoto gave a strained laugh and rubbed his neck. "If I can possibly get a picture of him, I'll be sure to send one." His voice betrayed that he was as unnerved by Nagisa's cheerful reception of the information as Haruka was. Perhaps, Haruka mused dismissively, he was one of those ghoul fanatics-those sorts who had a morbid fascination with the macabre and inhuman if for no other reason than the fact it was different from the norm-though he would have never guessed the doe-eyed boy would want to delve into anything of that nature.

"Oh, guys, look," Gou casually deflected the topic by holding up her phone to display the time, "seems like it's getting kinda late. Guess we'll have to put practice on hold, huh?" She let out a sigh and stood up. "I have to go now, anyway. I need to check up on Rin and make sure he's okay." She gave a sad smile. "He's really shaken up about what happened to Nitori."

Makoto, Rei, and Nagisa all opened their mouths to offer consolation and likely to tag along, though Gou was long gone before any of them found words. Haruka kept his lips closed and pulled downward. He knew that Rin's welfare was likely the last issue on Gou's mind; he bet that her main concern would be turning her brother against Makoto if for no other reason than to save her own skin.

The remaining swim club members parted with mumbled goodbyes and forced smiles.

As soon as he began walking home, Haruka started to dial Rin's phone number.


	4. Chapter 4

"Haru?"

"Mmhm?"

"Are you finally gonna tell me why you told me to meet you here in the middle of the night?"

It was midnight, as per Haruka's request, and Rin stood with his toes buried in the sand of the beach that rimmed Iwatobi's side. As they were still on the cusp of summer weather, the beach would have been fully occupied if the sun was up. Midnight, however, was not the optimal time for enjoying the water (for normal people, Rin added mentally-he wasn't sure what Haruka considered "optimal water time"), so there was not a soul in sight. Under a veil of darkness and the silence of the late night, Rin could hear each ebb and flow of the ocean that reached out toward his feet with dark hands.

It was all very pretty, Rin thought, but he wasn't exactly in the best state to enjoy it. Summer days were fine to be out and about in, but the nights were still arguably chilly-and the fact that he wore nothing but his swimsuit didn't help his case in the slightest. Admittedly, he _had _agreed to meeting Haruka under such strange conditions without questioning exactly what was going to happen, so he really didn't have anyone to blame but himself for his predicament.

He did, however, acknowledge that he likely didn't have anything better to do, what with Ai gone and all.

Haruka was dressed similarly, staring with an unblinking gaze out over the ocean. "Oh yeah. I guess I didn't say what we were doing over the phone." He didn't bother turning toward Rin. "We're going hunting."

Rin raised his eyebrows. "At midnight? On the beach?"

"Yes. Put your mask on."

Against his better judgement, Rin obliged. He'd been reluctant to bring his mask along-it was uncomfortable and he could hardly see anything through the narrow eye-slits-though in respect of his new "be more careful" motto he had decided it was in his best interest to wear it whenever he could. He did consent that he thought it to be pretty cool aesthetically; the mask was a deep crimson color with two thin horizontal slits for sight's sake and a simplistic open-mouth design spanning the entirety of its bottom half. Much like his own teeth, the mask's teeth were sharpened to a point.

Haruka's lips twitched upward in the beginnings of a grin. "I can't see a difference between it and your normal face." There was faint laughter coloring his voice.

Rin let out a sarcastic laugh and punched him in the shoulder. "Very funny. Gou bought it for me." He wouldn't admit, however, that she had bought a matching set of masks for the two of them to wear. She had the oddest ways of showing her familial affection. "Like your mask is any better."

Haruka slipped his mask on in retort and Rin couldn't help but feel a little bit defeated. A good sum of money had obviously gone into its creation; the shape was something like a vengeful sea-creature with gaping black holes for eyes and sharp teeth bared in a snarl. Fins extended out from either side and wrapped around Haruka's ears. The whole thing was painted like the ocean's surface-a deep blue with lighter ripples spanning out from the center.

Noticing Rin's stare, Haruka gave a short laugh. "My parents really like artsy stuff."

"So I'm guessing that's how you got the nickname 'Siren', huh?" Rin leaned in to get a closer look at the mask.

Rin could hear Haruka pulling his lips into a frown. "So Gou told you everything, huh? About the other ghouls in Iwatobi and….about…"

"Makoto. Yeah." Rin finished for him, recoiling back from the sudden hostility radiating from Haruka's tense posture. "And Rei, and about how they're gonna be trying to hunt us down. I know it all, yeah. Gou's, ah, pretty chatty." "Chatty" didn't quite seem to properly sum up Gou's sudden frantic calling earlier that day; something more along the lines of "infuriated" seemed to better suit her attitude, though he wasn't eager to share that much with Haruka. The two were at war-a silent war fought with glares and tension pulled tighter and tighter, but a war nonetheless.

He opted for a change in subject to avoid Haruka's ire.

"So, uh, why invite me to go hunting tonight? I mean, all of Iwatobi pretty much knows I ate recently." Ai was, as Gou had put it, a bit of a small fry, but nonetheless sated his appetite-at least for a little while.

Haruka started to wade into the water and answered without turning around. "You need to stay fed. I don't want you to starve." He paused, scratching the back of his head, and added, "I'm going to make sure you don't make another mistake like the one you did."

Exactly what Haruka meant dawned on Rin within a few heartbeats. What seemed on the exterior as friendly concern thinly masked the lack of faith Haruka had in him. He was determined, Rin realized fairly easily, to make things go back to normal. Minimize the spontaneous and close-to-home attacks, and soon there would be no need for Makoto and Rei (though Rin had a feeling Makoto was the main concern) to carry those damned briefcases any longer. Haruka had always been willful in getting his way.

Rin decided it would be best not to argue. Besides, he could feel that going hungry for so long had still left him feeling a little empty, even after picking Ai to the bone. His stomach gave a little gurgle.

"See? You're still hungry." Haruka waved for Rin to follow him into the water.

The two of them walked in silence for a good few minutes, listening only to the sloshing water climbing up their legs. Ankles, calves, knees, thighs-Rin waded calmly, silently alongside Haruka. Rin couldn't help but slip a sidelong stare in Haruka's direction, struck dumb by how different he seemed-a duty-bound stride, shoulders cocked back, chin raised, something oddly _predatory_. Yet, at the same time, he realized Haruka was astonishingly the _same _as he had knew him. The impassive face he wore at all times was the same as it had always been, though now it carried something a bit more macabre along its edges-something, well, ghoulish. Perhaps, Rin mused while cocking an eyebrow beneath his mask, Haruka was more like Gou in the respect that "human" Haruka and "ghoul" Haruka were two incredibly separate entities that were not entirely dissimilar.

That thought creeped him out, frankly. He turned his eyes forward again, glad that Haruka was too busy staring into the distance to notice Rin's scrutinizing gaze. If Haruka was _anything _like "ghoul" Gou, Rin knew for a fact that he'd have something to worry about.

Haruka suddenly stopped, holding his arm out for Rin to do the same. "Wait. Look." He pointed out at the horizon toward bright lights cutting through the night's gloom. "There's what we're looking for. It's probably a fishing boat." Rin could hear him swipe his tongue over his lips from beneath the siren mask. "That's where we're going. Try to keep up."

Rin bristled. "You saying you could swim there before me?" He put his hands on his hips and leaned toward Haruka. "Y'know that I _did _beat you before, right? Bet you I could get there first and have the best pick." He smirked, his expression beneath his mask matching the one on it.

Haruka tilted his head. "As a human, maybe. But," With a wet cracking sound, a dark blue liquid flowed from Haruka's lower back and as it dripped down his body it formed into a tail vaguely reminiscent of a dolphin's-some sort of twisted semblance, with a jagged and inky surface, but unarguably dolphin-like. "I can't swim seriously around non-ghouls. Try to keep up."

"...Oh." Rin's own rinkaku-type kagune was horribly inefficient for swimming while Haruka's bikaku-type could easily help propel him at perhaps double the already impressive swimming speed he boasted. He couldn't come up with some sort of snappy comeback before Haruka was already speeding off toward the fishing boat. "H-hey, wait up!"

* * *

The two of them arrived at the base of the boat with little difficulty, though Haruka had already long since been there by the time Rin made his way over to it. He punched him in the shoulder. "Not a word, Nanase."

Haruka gave a slight snorting laugh, rubbed his shoulder, and then shushed Rin. "Stay quiet and just follow me. We grab one each and then get out as fast as we can. There's a little outcropping of rock we can get to near the shore to eat. Okay?" He paused, and when Rin didn't respond, echoed himself, "Okay, Rin?"

But Rin wasn't looking at him. He was staring up at the side of the boat, jaw hanging loosely, speechlessly open. Haruka followed Rin's masked gaze and likewise went silent.

A chunk of the boat was painted a thick, drippy crimson with what appeared to be blood-_lots_ of blood, far too much blood to belong to just one person. Rin blinked when he heard the _plunk _of a fat droplet hitting his mask. His stomach gurgled again and he could feel his eyes slowly begin to dye themselves black. Something was dead here, and he knew for a fact that it wasn't fish.

Haruka was already scaling the side of the boat urgently, muttering something that Rin couldn't make out. He paused, lifted his mask up, and sniffed at the blood. "...Human." He confirmed, lowered his mask, and continued his ascent until he was able to hoist himself over the edge of the boat.

Rin followed suit, though he lingered by the blood a bit longer. The scent was tantalizing-something like what he imagined humans felt when they caught wind of baking sweets. He ran his fingers over it, lifted his mask up, and stuck his fingers in his mouth. The blood was undeniably human; it surged like electricity over his taste buds and sharpened the animalistic hunger that had been building in him. He indulged in another mouthful of blood before vaulting eagerly over the edge of the boat.

* * *

Rin ended up plowing headlong into Haruka, who had been frozen in the spot he had landed in. Haruka staggered a few steps forward, though otherwise didn't acknowledge Rin's clumsy arrival.

When Rin's feet hit the deck, he could feel blood slosh around the soles of his feet. Blood, however, was the least of either of their concerns.

The crew was little more than pieces-an arm here, a leg there, severed heads staring sightlessly into the night sky with jaws cracked open. The rails were hung with viscera like Christmas tinsel, dripping blood to add to the ever-growing pool. There wasn't a single body left completely intact; any torsos that Rin could spot were cracked open and dismembered.

In the center amidst it all was a single individual. They carried one of the more intact torsos, holding it up by the arm and hip and spinning with light steps as if dancing. Their high, breathy laughter split through the deathly silence that had fallen over the boat, as well as the gentle thumping of their dancing feet. As the individual and the corpse spun, there was a wet splattering sound as entrails hit the deck of the boat, accented by the gentle swishing sound of the long black coat that they wore.

It took a moment for them to notice Haruka and Rin's presence. A masked face turned to stare at them, and the fact that the eyes and nose of the individual were the only things the mask covered allowed grinning lips to be displayed.

Under the light of the moon, Rin could see that the individual's mask was shaped like the top half of a plague doctor's, with a birdlike beak extending out before their face and colored like...

Like a penguin.

"Penguin" dropped the corpse and darted over to the dumbstruck Haruka and Rin, still wearing a grin upon his face. Rin recoiled, honestly fearful of Penguin's intent, though Haruka stood his ground. Rin could almost feel anger and hostility radiating off of Haruka's tense shoulders and squared-up chest.

"This is my territory." Haruka advanced on the much shorter Penguin, his bikaku tail whipping back and forth in irritation. "What are you doing here?"

Penguin gave a small, breathy laugh and took a few dancing steps around Haruka. "Please don't be upset, Siren-chan." He spun with a flourish, flinging bloody arms out to either side. "This is all for you! Well, all for you and 'Animal'-chan, that is, since I guess you invited him too."

Rin cocked his eyebrows under his mask. "Animal"? Was that the nickname the CCG had assigned to his case? He supposed it fit, given the nature of how his own prey ended up looking, though he wondered why they couldn't give him something more…_creative_.

Haruka didn't seem pacified by the gesture. "I don't care. All you've done is draw more attention to my hunting grounds." He advanced a few steps until he was only a few inches from where Penguin stood. "What makes you think that you can do this?"

Penguin grinned broadly and gave Haruka a patronizing pat on the shoulder, undeterred by both Haruka's superior height and obviously angry disposition. "Awh, don't look so mean! It's the _thought _that counts, Siren-chan." He tilted his head and rested a finger on his cheek as if in thought. "Are you mad because the Doves are in Iwatobi? Are you scared they'll think you did this?" He leaned forward, adding in a tone like he was telling a secret, "Is Siren-chan _scared _of the _Doves_?" His mouth formed into a small O shape. "Or maybe…"

Haruka made a noise like a growl and shoved Penguin back. "You're insane if you think we shouldn't be worried. You may have a death wish, but I prefer living."

Penguin danced backward and let out a shrill laugh. "Siren's scared, Siren's scared!" He chanted in a mocking, singsong sort of tone. "Siren's scared of the Doves~!" His laughter pealed into the air and sent a cold shiver down the length of Rin's spine. "Do you not wanna kill the Doves, Siren-chan? That's okay! I'll protect you, Siren-chan; I'll kill them _all _for you!"

Haruka responded not with words, but by charging forward, bringing his tail up behind him, and driving it forward through Penguin's stomach.

Penguin's laughter cut off with a gag and blood dribbled out from between his parted lips. "Siren-chan…" He whined in a voice that almost sounded betrayed, "I don't want to fight you." Slowly, deliberately, a smile returned to his face. "_Especially _since you just proved to me who you are." With surprising speed (especially for someone who was in the process of being stabbed), Penguin reached up and snatched the mask off of Haruka's face. "I had a feeling it was you, Haru-chan."

Rin took that as his cue to step in. He looped his arms under Haruka's and pulled him back, taking a swat to the cheek from Haruka's kagune in the process. "Haru, we're not here to pick fights, you idiot! We should take what we can to eat and get the hell out of here before the Doves show up!" As disturbing as Penguin's little show was, it was useful. Neither of them had to dirty their own hands in order to eat that night, and Penguin seemed to have no intention of claiming the corpses littered about the boat as his property.

Haruka raised his arm to elbow his way free of Rin's grip, though paused and let out a resigned sigh. "Fine." The tone of Haruka's voice assured Rin that everything was _not_ fine-quite the opposite, in fact-though he didn't bother trying to explain any further. "Just let me get my mask."

"Alright."

As soon as he was released, Haruka shot out like a bullet from a gun and rammed full-force into Penguin, toppling both of them onto the blood-slicked deck of the boat. There was a brief altercation-mostly flailing arms and grunting sounds accented by Rin yelling for them to stop-before Haruka wrapped his hands around the beak of Penguin's mask and tore it off.

Everything stopped; the fighting, the yelling, the hostility-it all stopped and left only a deathly hush. Rin and Haruka stared dumbstruck at the revealed face. A good long period of silence passed-seconds, minutes, none of them were sure-before Rin found his words.

"What...the hell?"


End file.
